How to manage anxiety about surgery?

We explain several tips to manage anxiety and fear before an operation.

It has been proved in different researches that the fact of feeling anxiety has repercussions on the pre and post surgical intervention state.. Therefore, it will be important to work on it to improve the patient's condition and speed up recovery.

Several techniques have been found to be useful to manage fear and the feeling of anguish in general, adapted according to the age of the patient and his or her characteristics.

In this article we will consider the effect of patient anxiety in surgical interventions and we will see several advices on how to handle the anxiety before an operation..

Effects that can produce a surgical intervention

A surgical intervention is a stressful event for the individual, since it is an unpredictable event of which we do not know with absolute certainty what the final outcome will be. Before an operation, the patient also feels that he/she loses control over him/herself, since the surgery does not depend on him/her.The patient also feels that he/she loses control over him/herself, since the surgery does not depend on him/her, and thus it is very likely that anxiety may appear, with repercussions on the coping with the operation and the subsequent recovery.

It has been observed that the optimum degree of concern to face an operation is moderate, since if the concern is very low the patients tend to be less cooperative and more irritable and angry, and on the contrary, very high levels of worry can lead to the development of pathological fears and lead to the and lead the person to be less involved in their subsequent healing process.

Thus, it will be very important to assess and take into account the patient's emotional and psychological state and what thoughts he/she has about the intervention before performing the surgery, since this will ensure that the process will not be so negative or stressful and the subsequent recovery will be better, and the patient will be more cooperative.

How to deal with anxiety before an operation?

As we have seen, anxiety will have repercussions on the post-surgery recovery; for this reason it is essential to treat it and keep it in mind before the surgery. In this sense, let us look at several tips and strategies to help patients cope with anxiety before an operation.

1. Consider the different types of patients

Not all individuals benefit in the same way from the different techniques for coping with anxiety, and therefore psychological intervention is personalized..

One of the characteristics to be assessed is whether the subject presents sensitizing traits, that is, whether he/she is an anxious and vigilant person when faced with pain sensations or on the contrary is repressive (who will deny stress and avoid any thoughts about it). In reference to patients with the first type of trait, by means of a study that consisted of watching films with or without information on the intervention, it was seen that they obtained positive results from watching the tape; on the other hand, if the repressors watched the tape only once, they presented more anxiety than if they did not watch it.

Another variable to consider is the typical coping style of each individual. It has been seen that there are patients who seek information about the surgery, and these are the ones who will benefit from receiving information and will thus show less anxiety. On the contrary, there are other people who are considered "avoiders" to whom, in order to ensure that their anxiety does not increase too much or decreases, it is advisable not to give them too much information, or to give them only the essential information about the operation.

In the same way, depending on whether the doctors need the patient to be more or less active during the operation, one or the other will be better. during the operation, one or the other style of coping will be better. When it is important for the patient to intervene, the active style of the subject is beneficial; conversely, on occasions when less patient collaboration is needed, better results will be obtained if the patient remains passive by applying distraction strategies for anxiety.

Finally, another aspect to be assessed is the patient's degree of anxiety. It has been observed that patients with lower anxiety will benefit from receiving more information about the intervention, while those with higher trait anxiety will benefit from receiving more information without overdoing it.On the other hand, for those with a higher anxiety trait, it will be better to provide them with accurate information without overdoing it.

2. Empowering the patient

In a research that was done with patients who were going to undergo surgery, it was observed that subjects who were given information about the pain they could feel and who were taught breathing techniques, improved their state of anxiety, needed less analgesics and needed less painkillers.They needed less analgesics and were discharged from the hospital earlier.

Thus, two types of information have been found to be most effective in improving the patient's condition. One of these types consists in providing knowledge about the surgical procedure, i.e. let you know more about what the operation will be like, what will happen before and after it, where the operation will be performed, what further treatment you will receiveWhat will happen before and after the operation, where the operation will be performed, what further treatment you will receive, how long your recovery time is expected to be...

The second type of information that has proven to be beneficial consists of providing you with knowledge about the sensations you will havehow you are likely to feel and feel before and after the operation. In this way we try to reduce uncertainty.

It may help to reduce your anxiety to have the opportunity to express yourself, to say how you feel, what you are feeling, how you are likely to feel and how you will feel after surgery.to say how you feel, what your worries and fears are and thus be able to ask questions, reduce your degree of uncertainty and receive the support of the professionals, since as we have mentioned, anxiety hinders both the way of facing the operation and the subsequent recovery.

3. In cases of very intense anxiety, to resort to the psychologist.

The doctor will be in charge of communicating the necessary information you need to know about the intervention, providing you with a personal treatment and adapting his action to the type of patient.

But if the anxiety does not diminish, being very high and detrimental to the procedure to be performed, it will be advisable to be referred to a psychologist, it will be advisable to refer the patient to a psychologist in order to work more specifically on this anxiety and to be able to train more precise techniques to reduce it, such as relaxation, psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring...

Emotional preparation for surgical interventions in young children.

Children have different characteristics or capabilities than adults, for this reason it will be necessary to adapt the preparation and manage anxiety in the event of a future intervention.. In this way we also ensure that the first medical experiences are not negative, increasing the possibility that the attitude of children with respect to future treatments will not be bad.

It has been proven that it is necessary to adapt the information we give according to the age of the patient, so that he/she can have a proper understanding of it and can really benefit from the process. Thus, in younger children the information about the intervention is given in a very general way, making it as playful as possible and showing them the different instruments used by the doctor (the most specific information is given to their parents).

As the child grows older, the amount of knowledge and specification of the information given increases.So, by adolescence, the same variables that are considered with adults will be taken into account.

In several investigations it has been observed that play benefits children to better understand their pathology and helps to prepare them emotionally for the different medical interventions. In a complementary manner, it has also been seen that constructing a relationship of trust between the child and the professionals who will treat him or her can help reduce fear and anxiety..

Different procedures have been used to cope with anxiety in children; for example the technique of emotional imagination has been applied.This consists of the child imagining a hero to help reduce anxiety. Another intervention method to overcome anxiety before an operation is based on Muscle relaxation and breathing training complemented with images that the child likes, attention distraction strategies and self-instructions, to guide in stressful situations.

Finally, another intervention that has been found to be effective in children is filmed modeling.. This procedure consists of showing a film to the child showing a child's stay in the clinic from admission to discharge. At the beginning, the child feels anxious, but throughout the filming, ways of coping with anxiety and techniques to reduce it are shown. Despite the benefits observed with this procedure, it has been seen that it is not recommended when the intervention is imminent, occurring on the same day, since the child will not have time to understand the information well.

Similarly, it will be important to introduce the parents to the procedures we perform with the children, since they will probably also be anxious about the future operation and it will be necessary to prepare them to act as support for their children.